Can you get decent results in 2 gallon containers?

Okay so here's my dilemma...I started 8 seeds 35 days ago....One fizzled out right away...Then I was at 7 plants...I just noticed what is likely a male pre-flower on one of the remaining 7 plants...so IF it turns out to me a male, then it will also be culled. Now, I'm down to 6 plants and some of them have yet to show sex...which might lead to even fewer plants.

I initially wanted to do a kind of "Sea Of Green" concept and grow more plants -but in smaller containers. I decided on eight 2-gallon plastic garden pots in my 3 X 3 tent. I had been using 3 gallon grow bags in the past, but I could never keep the outer perimeter of the soil moist enough, so the root ball always suffered. I figured the 2 gallon plastic garden pot would keep ALL the soil evenly moist by comparison, giving me about the same actual root mass as a 3 gallon grow bag.... so that was my rationale behind the 2 gallon pot size.

BTW, I have two plants that are from feminized seed, so that's a sure thing, but all the other strains are regs -some of them are yet-to-be-determined as far as sex. Now that I'm facing potentially ending up with even fewer plants, I'm debating on either starting some more seeds to try and make up for the deficit, and repotting the females into larger containers -which would increase the yield and keep me on-schedule, but wouldn't give me the variety I'm after. I have to make a decision pretty soon.

Has anyone had a successful grow in 2 gallon size pots? Or, is that size just too small?

honestly your in soil so i would not recommend a 2 gallon pot unless you have short veg time the last time i flowered in soil in a 3 gallon pot i got 40 grams lmfao and my plants rootball looked super rootbound at the end of the grow when i checked it out.
my 2 cents 2 gallon pots are enough if your growing in coco not soil unless your plants are super small with minimal veg time

I have 4 plants in a 4x4 and 3 of them are in 1gal pots.
They’re filling out nicely. I feed everyday (mega crop 1 part + their Sea kelp, no plain water in between. Not adjusting or monitoring ph/ppm, I’m just going off the instructions on the bag. I am doing this to see if i really need huge pots. Also.. regardless of the results at the end.. I’m monitoring overall plant health throughout its life.

I can send a more updated picture in the morning. They are flowering now.
Side note: the plant in front to the left is just a short plant. Not a stretcher at all. So she’ll be small, but she’s my favorite smoke for now, so she was getting a spot in this round.

I’d also like to add that I’ve seen some pretty impressive solo cup grows using frequent fertigation. If I can find the pics I’ll come back & edit this. I’ll look now.

I go at least 5 gal in soil. Running 10g sips right now. Smaller pots dry out too fast, and dry backs are not good using organics.

If going 2 gal use coco. People have excellent results in two gallon coco pots.

I always use 2 gallon pots.

I'm use 2 gallon pots with coco. If I were using soil, and watering in nutes, I'd go at least 5 gallon. Living organic soil, I'd go at least 15 gallon, with the exception of a sip.

Another vote for coco in 2 gallon pots.

HydroKid239 said:

I feed everyday (mega crop 1 part + their Sea kelp, no plain water in between. Not adjusting or monitoring ph/ppm, I’m just going off the instructions on the bag.

Click to expand...

Using coco, I'm guessing? I'd actually asked about feeding in a MegaCrop thread but didn't really got a useful answer. For early flower, I believe MC suggests 4 or 5 grams per gallon, EVERY time you water. That just seemed possibly excessive to me so I could never bring myself to feed quite that much and often with it. You're basically sticking to the bag's directions without it creating any overfeeding issues?

Fangthane said:

Using coco, I'm guessing? I'd actually asked about feeding in a MegaCrop thread but didn't really got a useful answer. For early flower, I believe MC suggests 4 or 5 grams per gallon, EVERY time you water. That just seemed possibly excessive to me so I could never bring myself to feed quite that much and often with it. You're basically sticking to the bag's directions without it creating any overfeeding issues?

Click to expand...

I just used MC at 5g/G (~1.5EC) for vegging and it worked as well as anything else, no issues, plants looked happy and healthy.
The only issue with MC is that it never completely dissolves, it's great for hand watering but I don't use it in my reservoir.

Coco in a 2gal pot is doable, BUT

1) Don't veg it too long, like less than 30 days
2) Be ready to water at least 1-2x a day or run drip
3) Grow an auto or a plant known to stay short
4) even consider running it 12/12 from seed

I like promix in 2 or 3 gallon pots.
2 gallon in my 3x3 and 3 gallon for my 4x4.
5 gallon pots are too much for a 5 week veg. The roots never fill out the entire pot with such a short veg. I have been running clones only so veg time is about 2 weeks less than from seed.

7 plants is gonna be a tight fit in a 3x3.
Be reasy to fight high humidity for sure.

leatherbackturtle420 said:

I like promix in 2 or 3 gallon pots.
2 gallon in my 3x3 and 3 gallon for my 4x4.
5 gallon pots are too much for a 5 week veg. The roots never fill out the entire pot with such a short veg. I have been running clones only so veg time is about 2 weeks less than from seed.

7 plants is gonna be a tight fit in a 3x3.
Be reasy to fight high humidity for sure.

Click to expand...

I use 5gal pots coco, because I don't run a drip system, I've found having a bigger pot will allow me some leeway to miss a watering here & there. NOT advisable to let coco dry out, the smaller pots get dry by the time I go in to water, the 5gals stay wetter for longer

Billy the Mountain said:

I just used MC at 5g/G (~1.5EC) for vegging and it worked as well as anything else, no issues, plants looked happy and healthy.

Click to expand...

Literally EVERY time you water, as the bag suggests? Not water-feed-water, or any skipping feeds?

EDIT. Ok, stupid questions. Noticed you're also in coco. Kinda wondering more about whether or not it's advisable to use it at recommended strength in soil.

Fangthane said:

Literally EVERY time you water, as the bag suggests? Not water-feed-water, or any skipping feeds?

EDIT. Ok, stupid questions. Noticed you're also in coco. Kinda wondering more about whether or not it's advisable to use it at recommended strength in soil.

Click to expand...

With out good runoff MC at 5 gram per gal will burn plants up pretty quick.

Fangthane said:

Using coco, I'm guessing? I'd actually asked about feeding in a MegaCrop thread but didn't really got a useful answer. For early flower, I believe MC suggests 4 or 5 grams per gallon, EVERY time you water. That just seemed possibly excessive to me so I could never bring myself to feed quite that much and often with it. You're basically sticking to the bag's directions without it creating any overfeeding issues?

Click to expand...

In soil. I am using 5g per gallon now each time I feed (Every watering). Still they are showing me they can take more. Only watering til run off once a week. Some yellowing on lower leaves occurred when I was feeding at 4g per gallon, so I bumped it to full flower strength early.

Edit: pics added

HydroKid239 said:

In soil. I am using 5g per gallon now each time I feed (Every watering). Still they are showing me they can take more. Only watering til run off once a week. Some yellowing on lower leaves occurred when I was feeding at 4g per gallon, so I bumped it to full flower strength early.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Possibly the ONLY thing growers universally agree on is this: Never follow the manufacturer's recommended feed strength. Kinda had a feeling I was generally underfeeding with MC, but didn't want to go up to recommended dosage just on general principle. Something about giving a heavy-ish feed every time I water just flew against so many warnings I've read about overfeeding, and how one should always alternate watering and feeding, etc. Now that some ostensibly knowledgeable people with MC experience have confirmed that the suggested dosage is just fine every watering, I'll feel a lot better about it.

Fangthane said:

Thanks! Possibly the ONLY thing growers universally agree on is this: Never follow the manufacturer's recommended feed strength. Kinda had a feeling I was generally underfeeding with MC, but didn't want to go up to recommended dosage just on general principle. Something about giving a heavy-ish feed every time I water just flew against so many warnings I've read about overfeeding, and how one should always alternate watering and feeding, etc. Now that some ostensibly knowledgeable people with MC experience have confirmed that the suggested dosage is just fine every watering, I'll feel a lot better about it.

Click to expand...

Once a week I have to refill the bucket I make their solution in, so at that time I water with either recharge or fish shit til I get some good runoff. Since the pots are small, I can lift them to slide the trays out from underneath & switch em out for cleaning. I keep a 5th tray dedicated to that process.

So you won't grow a monster plant in a tiny pot, but I've grown some pretty decent sized plants in tiny pots.
With big plants in small pots it's all about feeding and watering. Small pots require much more frequent watering, and the larger the plant the more you need to feed it. Does that make for a simple no hassle grow, not if you are hand watering. I spent the last 3 weeks at the grow i work for scratching But if you have irrigation set up its much more doable.

I used to keep mother plants in little 6inch square pots just like all my clones went into. The pots were solid with roots when I took them out, but the plants kept growing nice and healthy and putting out fresh clones every 2-3 weeks for me. I'd keep them for 9 months to a year like that before replacing them. I only replaced them when they got super gnarly branches from the constant cloning. If clones from a mother happened to start rooting slowly, I'd replace the mother with a clone from the previous batch and keep chugging on.

To the OP @tstick "SOG" is a great way to grow, I did it that way for 10+ years. It really really works best with clones. It also really helps to have irrigation or to run a hydro system of some sort(I really like flood and drain). I have never tried to run SOG with living soil, and I think it might be tough but not undoable. I'm currently working at a NO-Till organic farm, and I have spent the last 3 weeks working on a batch of 1000ish teen plants that were between 2.5-3 feet tall all living in 1-gallon pots. They were nice and healthy, but we were scratching in dry amendments 2x a week and watering every day to keep them that way. I actually really want to eventually get the farm to let me run a test on SOGing with our no-till soil system. I'd love to see how the results compare. It would easily increase the number of harvests we got each year by not spending 2-3 months vegging plants. I've only been there since August though so I'm not trying to stir the pot to soon.

Current grow in 3gal bags of organic soil....plants are all at 4'
I water/feed once/day, big fan of humic acid after first few weeks..... never ph anything, threw my ph pen in the trash.